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her: So it is also her Duty to call all Men to Chap. 1. her Communion. This is what in the (17) Quest.1. Greek, that is in the Original Language of the New Teftament, her Name imports. For She is ftyl❜d exxanoia, not only because She herself is chofen and call'd to ferve God, but also because She calls all Men to his Service and to her Faith, and Communion. This fhe did in the Apoftolical Age, and has never ceas'd to do it Since.

Fifthly, becaufe St. (18) Paul reckons press, Herefies and Schifms, amongst the manifeft Works of the Flefb, of which he fays over and over, that they, who do fuch things, fhall not inherit the Kingdom of God. 'Tis plain from the Gospel, that it is the Duty, as well as the Happiness of all Men to be Chriftians. For be, who believes not the Gospel when duly propos'd to him, fhall be damn'd, St. Mark, xvi. v. 16. And it is alfo plain from the words of St. Paul, now mention'd, that all Chriftians ought to be Catbolicks, fo to avoid the Guilt of Herefy and Schifm. Why? Because all Chriftians, willfully feparated from the Catholick Church, are either Hereticks, or Schifmaticks Hereticks, if separated from the Catholick Faith: And Schifmaticks, if separated from the Catholick Communion. This lets us fee, how real and and great a Happiness it is to be a Member of the Catholick Church: Since all who are out of it (I mean wilfully, or by a criminal Neglect) are either Schifmaticks, Hereticks, or Infidels.

II. I am

(17) ἐκκλησία ἀπὸ τὸ ἐκκαλῶσθαι, καὶ ἐκκαλῶν. (18) Gal. v. v. 19. 20. 21.

Chap. 1. II. I am not infenfible, how violent and alQueft.1. most invincible Prejudices may be innocently conceiv'd, even by those who are fincere and great Lovers of Truth, againft all which has been or will be prov'd on this Subject with the utmost Evidence, efpecially when thofe Seeds of Ignorance have been Industriously spread and fwell'd from the Pulpit, by all the Means, which Error and Intereft can Suggeft. However, I cannot but reflect, that Quakers are as violent against Baptifm, as the warmeft of our Adverfaries can be against the Catholick Communion: And that Chriftianity is as detestable in the Turkish Mofques (into which it is Death for a Christian to enter) as Popery is in a Protestant Affembly, or in a Prefbyterian MeetingHouse. I cannot but reflect alfo, that till Herefy and Infidelity ceafe to be what they neceffarily are, that is, till Diffenters ceafe to be Diffenters, Truth will be always hated. But however injur'd, opprefs'd, mifrepresented, and flander'd, it will always be able to defend itself against Ignorance and Malice, tho' they be arm'd with Power.

III. St. (19) Auguftin fays, The Catholick Church ALONE is the Body of Chrift: the Holy Ghoft gives Life to no one who is out of this BODY. And in his Sermon to the People of Algier: (20) Salvation no one can have, but in the Catho

lick

(19) Ecclefia Catholica fola Corpus eft Chrifti. Extra boc Corpus neminem vivificat Spiritus San&us. Epift. clxxxv. §. 50. Edit. Bened. (20) Salutem non poteft habere, nifi in Ecclefia Catholica. Extra Ecclefiam Catholicam totum poteft præter Salutem. Poteft babere bonorem, poteft babere Sacramentum, poteft Evange

lium

tick Church. Out of the Catholick Church, he Chap. 1. may have any thing, but Salvation. He may have Queft.1. Honour, be may bave Baptifm, he may have the Gospel, he may both believe, and preach, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: but he can find Salvation no where, BUT IN THE CATHOLICK CHURCH --- If be fuffer out of it, tho' an Enemy of Chrift should fay to him out of the Church of Christ, offer Incenfe to Idols, adore my Gods, and should put him to Death for the Refufal: he may lose his Life, but HE cannot RECEIVE A CROWN..

IV. I need not here put the Reader in mind, that the Catholick Church is only a Part of Christendom. Nor was it ever any more, than a Part of it, fince Herefies began.

In the first, that is, in the Apoftolical Century; Christendom, befides true Believers or Catholicks, comprehended the Simonians, Disciples of Simon Magus, the firft Reformer of Catholick Faith, who pretended (21) to be the Father, the Son, and the H. Spirit, and faid, that his Wife begot the Angels, who made the World, and the Difference betwix't Good and Evil, from which flavery he came down to free Mankind. It comprehended the (22) Menandrians,

lium tenere, poteft in nomine Patris, & Filii, & Spiri-
tus Saniti fidem & habere & prædicare; fed nufquam
nifi in Ecclefia Catholica falutem poteft invenire fi
foris patiatur, & fi dicat ei foris ab Ecclefia Chrifti
Inimicus Chrifti, Pone thus idolis, adora Deos meos;
non adorans occidatur ab Inimico Chrifti: fanguinem
fundere poteft, coronam accipere non poteft. fer. ad Cæ
fareenfes. de Emerito. 6. 6. T. ix. p. 622. Invet.
Edit. T. vii. (21) See Monf. Tillemont. Mem. Eccle.
Tom. ii. p. 39. 40. (22) Ibid. p. 50.

Chap. 1.drians, a Branch of the former Herefy; the Queft.1. (23) Gnofticks, Men of wicked Morals and cor

rupt Lives, who held with Simon Magus, that Christ had not a real Body; (24) the Nicolaites, equall infamous, the (25) Cerinthians, who affirm'd the neceffity of Circumcifion, and of the other Ceremonies of Mofes's Law, but held, that the Creator of the World did not know God, that a bad Angel was the God of the Jews, that, when Jefus was Baptiz'd, Chrift came upon him in the form of a Dove, but left him, when he Suffer'd; the (26) Nazaraans, who also held the neceffity of Circumcifion, and of all the other Jewish Ceremonies; and the (27) Ebionites, who in this agreed with the Nazaraans and Cerinthians, and added, that Chrift is a meer Man. They rejected the Prophets, and Part of Mofes's Books. They condemn'd St. Paul, as an Enemy to the Law of Mofes, and as an Apoftate; and of the new Teftament, they receiv'd only the Hebrew Gospel of St. Matthew, and corrupted several Places in it.

V. Hence to guard and arm true Believers, against the Herefies of that Time, was a very confiderable Part of the Charity and Charge of the Apostles. St. Peter, in his Epiftles, and St. Jude, attack'd more particularly the Simonians, and the Gnofticks: as St. Paul, and St. John the Evangelift, both in his Gospel and in his Epiftles, did the Cerinthians and Ebionites. St. John calls them (28) Antichrifts, and says, there

(23) Ib. p. 52, 54. (24) Ib. p. 47, 48. (45) Ib. p. 61, 62. (26) lb. p. 113. (27) Îb. p. 117, 118, 119.(28) i. Jo. ii. v. 18, 22. i. Jo. iv. v. 3. ii. Jo. v. 7.

there are (29) many of them. He adds (30) Chap. 1. They went out from us, but they were not of us: Queft.1. for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us.

St. Paul, writing to the Galatians, an. 55, rekons (31) déos, Herefies and Schifms, amongst the manifeft Works of the Flesh, which exclude Men from the Kingdom of Heaven.

And writing to the Corinthians, in the following Year, he tells them, that (32) there must be Herefies, that thofe who are truly good, may be made manifeft.

As (33) there must be ra' oxávdara, Scandals ; but wo! be to that Man, by whom Scandal comes. And may we not fay the fame of Herefy, the greatest Tryal, to which ungarded Virtue is expos'd, and which fometimes draws whole Nations into Perdition?

An. 64, writing to St. Titus, Bishop of Candy or Crete, he fays, that (34) a Heretick is fubverted, that be Sins, and that he is felf condemn'd and felf convicted dvonaláner, because he knows or ought to know his Guilt. Yet St. Paul's Advice is, that he be twice admonish'd, before he is caft out of the Church.

The fame Year, writing to St. Timothy Bishop of Ephefus, he fails not to put him in mind, that (35) fome, by putting away a good Confcience, have fuffer'd Shipwrack in their Faith. Of whom is Hymenæus, and Alexander, whom I have deliver'd to Satan, that they may learn not

to

(29) i. Jo. ii. v. 18. ii. Jo. v. 7. (30) i. Jo. ii. v. 19. (31) Gal. v. v. 19, 20, 21. (32)i. Cor. xi. v. 19. (33) St. Matth. xviii. v. 7. (34) ad Tit. iii. v. II. (35) i. Tim. i. v. 19, 20.

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